Mixing RAM Speeds

[Pilotwings119]

Would it be ok if I had one stick of 512mb PC2700 ddr ram and another stick of 512mb PC3200 ddr ram? Theyre both compatible with my mobo, but PC3200 is faster. would this be a problem at all?

 

[Person]

The faster RAM would be underclocked to the lower speed. It will only be as fast as the slowest one.

 

[Pilotwings119]

humph. thats interesting. so there aren't individual ram slot speed adjustments?

 

[ag3]

All modules are clocked at the same frequency.

 

[VIII]

yup, person is right..
they have to perform at the same speed if u think about it, and so they run at the slowest one..

 

[RedRecon2004]

Yeah, just get a stick of 512MB PC2700 instead, that would give you 1024MB RAM anyways and you'd probably notice a pretty big performance increase, especially in games and more powerful applications.

 

[Pilotwings119]

ok i'm thinking about doing that anyways- thanks- i am looking for more performance and im glad to hear this will happen with more ram

 

[Nubius]

If he gets PC3200 and it's underclocked to PC2700 that means he can run tighter timings than PC2700 of the same timings.

Meaning if you bought 3-3-3-8 it'd run like 2.5-3-3-7 (not that that makes a HUGE difference in speed or anything) whereas the PC2700 wouldn't necessarily do it, plus he'd be set for when he does need PC3200

 

[waynejkruse10]

if you underclock ram, you can really tweak those latencies

 

[Soloman02]

for awhile I had 512mb on k-byte pc2700 and 512mb of PNY pc3200. the 3200 was underslocked to match my fsb (which was 333 at the time) when I got my new mobo, I was able to ditch the pc2700, and buy a stick of PNY pc3200 to match my fsb (400, since I overclocked my cpu) so I didn't have to blow a chunk of cash at one time on ram. you will be better off buying pc3200. plus, usually it is the same price as pc2700.